Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

39 reviews

skywhales's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

well, i think to myself as i spot this in the used books section of one of my favorite bookstores, everyone puts sarah waters at the top of their lists of great lesbian writers. may as well give her a shot sometime, right?

my only regret is i didn't do it sooner.

this might just be my new favorite historical fiction novel (though to be fair it's not a genre i read all that often, so the competition is slim). (also as i write this i realize i forgot about carter the great. sorry man you're still like hella up there.) admittedly it does start off slow, and i didn't find nancy very likable at first. her infatuation with kitty to the point of neglecting her family really rubbed me the wrong way. though as i kept reading i figured the Point of her is she's not all that likable. sarah waters even says so in her notes at the end. she's kinda cocky and annoying and sometimes lacking in common sense, but even as i hate her i still find her a deeply entertaining protagonist. and i still do Want her to find happiness! 

once the plot gets going it really hooks you. you're on this wild ride through victorian london through all the gritty, weird, sometimes sexy places that nan visits on her travels. i don't know how much of this was historically accurate, but i do know that all of it was very very fun. i learned a lot more about oyster preparation than i ever thought i would. and loads about the victorian lesbian scene, which i maybe could have predicted myself taking an interest in at some point in my life.

idk what to say about this that hasn't already been said, to be honest. the romance aspects, which can so easily make or break even a lesbian book for me, felt so fully realized and beautiful (or ugly, at times). the sex was. well. i ain't complaining.

now to add every sarah waters book to my tbr

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

juliastern__'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

clover_patch_story's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia

tiernanhunter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

hahahaha's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Tipping the Velvet certainly started out great. I was immediately impressed by the marked and beautiful prose Waters wrote with. It was the kind of writing that made you pause and marvel and want to live in the author’s thoughts forever. The novel also began with a very compelling romance as well as adequate pacing—I fell almost as much as in love with Kitty as Nan did (little did I know, there would be so much more to the novel). 

However, Tipping the Velvet is one of those books that you need to be interested in the subject matter to fully enjoy and appreciate, I believe. Nan King’s 1890s London greatly paralleled the Prohibition-Era New York that I wrote an APUSH research paper about, so I was easily intrigued by all the music halls, the cross-dressing, the toms and mary-annes. And you can tell Waters had done her research. However, between the drastic plot changes and sometimes dragging scenes of unlikeable characters, there were quite a few times when Waters lost my attention. That being said, the gorgeous prose and Nan’s multidimensional development were reason enough for me to finish the novel. 

And I am glad I kept going. I was often rewarded by reappearances of relevant characters—Florence and Kitty, of course, but also Zena, Diana, Billy-Boy (though I would have also loved to catch a glimpse of Mrs. Milde and Gracie again). I did not love the ending (I think I had issues with the pacing—too slow in the middle, too rushed at the end), but Nan’s development into a much more honest, hardened, and loyal individual was incredibly worthwhile. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Homophobia

cheeseplant111's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

oh my god,,,
nancy worlds biggest simp 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Lesbophobia

tonyay's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Colonisation

francescaastraea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The least realistic thing about this book is that more than 4 lesbians in 19th century London would hang out regularly. I mean it takes like six weeks of planning to hang out NOW and these ladies had to spend eight hours a week sourcing clean drinking water

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Grief, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Classism

gaycornbread420's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol